RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN: The Complete Overtures. Hollywood...

RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN: The Complete Overtures. Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, conducted by John Mauceri. Philips 434 932-2. The instrumental style of performance on Broadway, just like the vocal style, is a particular one--and one that Mauceri either doesn’t care about or doesn’t know how to get. Gone is the pep of the original cast recordings. Missing are the curt inflections, pushed tempos and crisp articulations characteristic of the style, the first trumpet, sempre vibrato, firmly ensconced as the lead instrument. Mauceri leads solidly played but sometimes sleepy readings in a glossy, spacious recording acoustic--exactly what one doesn’t want for this music.

Note: Hammerstein wrote the lyrics before Rodgers set them to music, thus the overtures, arranged from the songs of the musicals, are properly credited here to them both--because H’s rhythms dictated R’s.